Grilled Brunch

Bobby Flay says that “brunch is his weakness.” With this recipe I know why. This is Maple-Peach-Glazed Ham Steak from Boy Gets Grill (page 239). I prepared the glaze in less than five minutes and had the whole brunch prepared with 15 minutes. I fired up the grill and placed my cast iron skillet on one side of the grates. I grilled the ham steak on the other side, directly on the grates and poured the scrambled eggs into the skillet. While the eggs were cooking, I turned the ham and heavily brushed on the glaze. When the eggs were ready I put everything into the skillet together including some blueberry scones that had been warming on a higher level grill rack. One plate = one brunch.

The last time I had ham on the grill was Thanksgiving, so the ham brought back some memories. For the first time in many years we had both our grown children back home at the same time. Gabrielle lives near Atlanta and Ziggy near Dallas. They are both teachers. They are both really excellent teachers. They both grew up and became the terrific adults that Dorothy and I worked so hard for them to be. They are making a difference in the lives of others now – they don’t get enough credit – they don’t get enough money, but they are living their calling - most people can’t say that.

At Thanksgiving, Gabrielle brought her new boyfriend with her, Mason. As parents you are always a little leery of the new boyfriend, but guess what? This guy is a griller! Yes, he is green, inexperienced, but he understands the grill/heritage relationship and has budding talent. I had to admit, he knew his way around the grill. We watched the Thanksgiving Day football games while grilling the turkey and smoking the ham. We basted the turkey and glazed the ham for hours. When it was all ready, I removed the turkey and was about to take in the ham when Mason had an idea. Replace the grill grates and roll the ham across the grill so that the glaze would become crispy and caramelize before serving. It was genius. The best ham we ever had. The kids’ got talent for the grill and made a pretty good choice for a girlfriend too.

Having grown kids really is great. The fact that they are no longer young and living with us is balanced by the pride we have in them as adults. But as I dropped my son off at airport security for his flight home from Thanksgiving, I did have a flashback of dropping him off at the school bus stop. 

It was Ziggy who turned me on to Conan years ago. He said I should give this crazy guy a chance. I did and I got hooked. Now Conan is gone - treated unfairly in my view. I always chose Letterman over Leno, but switched from Letterman to Conan these past months. Now I am going back to Letterman. I won't watch Leno after this. We saw Jimmy Fallon in person last year at a comedy club and he was hilarious. Until Conan returns, Fallon is the best of the worst. Too bad that Bobby Flay doesn't have a late night show on the Food Network!

It's the weekend - almost time to light the grill again!

Paul